For those who may wish to read the draft bills in full, here they are: the original Lokpal bill proposed by the Government (GoI) and the Jan Lokpal bill (Version 2.1) proposed by the ‘Civil’ Society (unlike the GoI). Also, here is the comparison between the two, put up by the ‘Civil Society’ (CS).
A few thoughts:
1. Do we really need another institution to control what we do? If we (voters and men-women of various professions) and our bureaucracy-politicians-police are not doing the respective jobs right, there is no guarantee that adding one more institution will really help.
2. You have a body X which is supposed to a job and do it right. But since you don’t believe in X anymore, you’re appointing Y. I don’t see any guarantee that Y will be incorruptible. Where does it end? Or does it just give us someone new to point our fingers at? We don’t accept the blame; we’re bored of blaming the government, so now we will blame the Lokpal!
3. On a philosophical note, Gandhiji said “learn self-rule”, meaning the rule of your own conscience, without a need of an outsider watchdog. If we don’t do that, no collection of governing/eye-keeping/watchdog bodies will truly help. Why do we always need someone to babysit us, our government, our judiciary and more? Apparently our conscience is not troubled enough to keep us awake at night.
4. The ultimate challenge is to create a system which will work largely independent of people of such tremendous incorruptibility. There has to be a feedback loop. By design, it should be largely robust to the personal specificities of the ones running it. Democracy tries to achieve this, by having elections as feedback loops.
5. The Lokpal can override the police, the government and act as a court. Isn’t that too much power? If the whole issue is that power corrupts, how is creating something EVEN more powerful [than the government] and giving it in the hands of EVEN fewer persons [than the government] helpful? And how is this different from all of police, courts having to finally listen to the Lokpal? How is this different from putting your faith in a good, benevolent ruler king/queen (like we have done for most of our history)?
6. If we think by arranging for “requirements by the Lokpal to be transparent”, the transparency can be achieved, why not do it for all the existing systems and the politicians and officers? It’s easier said than done. And, if making punishments more severe stops corruption, we will keep needing more and more watchdogs, as it is clear that we cannot be guided by our conscience but only by the fear of getting caught and punished.
7. Though I do not wish to question the integrity and good intentions of the proponents of Jan Lokpal bill, is fast-unto-death a democratic way to go? Did I miss the public debate about this? Have all the discussions and negotiations failed? I have the highest respect for all the soldiers against corruption; but is bringing the government down on its knees by threatening to take our lives a good example of social leadership in a democracy?
What can we do, then?
We can work on our existing systems – the institutions, the laws. Use RTI to its best. Build public opinion and pressure to implement the current laws better. Let’s make the public voices stronger, press truly free. The answer is not an arbitrarily selected body which can override the democratically elected government. And if we think the current system is failing, it is not because there are not enough watchdogs. It is failing because we have not used the public pressure enough and hence rendered the feedback loops ineffective.
Yes, Anna Hazare is at least doing something against corruption. Definitely. It is humbling and great that someone is so passionate about it. But as all of us get all pumped up, isn’t it a good idea to know what we are signing up for?
Mandar Gadre.
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[Edit: 9 April '11]
Addendum:
We have screwed up our own democratic setup for more than 5 decades. We haven’t voted – especially the so-called educated class, haven’t given attention to raising public awareness, haven’t worked on our press. We haven’t matured in the arena of public discourse.
And now we suddenly come up with something drastic and think that since the situation is so screwed up, any such drastic action is in itself justified and obviously required.
This allows us to think that not doing our part for decades is still fine and can be remedied just by appointing a new body. Now we can keep blaming the Lokpal if the corruption continues, but never take the onus on ourselves. If we want to call ourselves a true democracy, we have to participate and do our part. To me, appointing Lokpal and wishing that everything will be set right is not only undemocratic but escapist. We still don’t want to accept the blame and get our hands dirty.
I tried to write about this with my limited knowledge, understanding and socio-political vocabulary. I got called a cynic. Am I one, when I still believe we can make the democracy work if we all truly play our part, without appointing another laaThi-wielding officer to kick our asses.
This will set a precedent where we do nothing to nurture our democracy for decades, and suddenly spring up to action and adopt drastic measures. Democracy does not come that easy.
Mandar Gadre.
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